Jamiroquai Tours Planet Earth with Midas XL8

FOH engineer Rick Pope is out on the Jamiroquai tour with a Midas XL8 live performance system at FOH, supplied by Britannia Row and babysat by Britannia Row’s Warren Grimsley, who is out for the first time with the system. Originally on the tour as PA tech, Grimsley was promoted to his position with little training on the XL8, but picked it up in no time.

“I had the luxury of playing with one a few times in lunch breaks at the warehouse before the tour!” he says. “I’ve found that the console is easy to get around, especially when using the POP(ulation) groups. Especially useful is a function which allows you to see any audio in the patch bay when you scroll over the I/O in question; very handy for troubleshooting.”

Pope, working with an input count of 60 with a further 22 for FX returns, says, “Out of all the digital boards that I’ve used in the live environment, the XL8 is sonically by far the best. The definition in one’s mix can only described as 3D; I have not heard separation like this before. The board is also very intuItive and once you have coloured-coded your VCA groups it is quick and easy to navigate to selected channels at the touch of a button. I use the automation between scenes for all of my keyboard rides, and I basically run the rest of it as an analogue board.

I’m now looking forward to using the desk on our summer festival run, where I expect to be even more impressed with the sound as there won’t be the reflections that you get in some of the arenas that we have to deal with on the touring circuit.”

Jamiroquai’s European tour started in March and continues throughout the summer with the addition of a second XL8 on monitors, manned by Midas digital aficionado Tristran Farrow.